The term “smart home” refers to the total networking of electronic maintenance systems, communication technology and domestic technology including partial automation in a (family) home or a building (multiple occupancy residence, high-rise building, factory building, office building, residential block, etc.), in which all the devices and equipment in the residence/building are connected together via a local (internal) network and are also linked to a global (external) network and in which there is increasing integration of the specified networking technologies as a result of general technical convergence.
A key role in this networking principle in the domestic field is certainly played by wireless communication technology and in particular those technologies that offer simple, fast, user-friendly and not least of all economical solutions to the networking principle. Particular examples of these are all cordless technologies with which the smart home owner can set up their own local network, to have access to the global network, e.g. the internet, in a small radius of up to 300 meters, so-called hotspots, from any current location within said hotspots. Potential cordless technologies covering the specified short range field preferably include WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) technology according to the IEEE standard 802.11 (a . . . ), DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication) technology according to the ETSI standard ETS 300 175-1 . . . 7, Bluetooth technology according to the Bluetooth standard (BT spec. v1.2), WiMax technology according to the IEEE standard 802.16, ZigBee technology according to the IEEE standard 802.15.4 and/or mobile radio technologies in current use, such as the GSM or 3GPP radio system, in conjunction with one of the short-range radio standards mentioned.
Devices and equipment networked with the wireless communication technology form a telecommunication system in the intelligent home/building, which is able to manage a plurality of functions such as operation and control functions, security and monitoring functions, health and care functions, control functions, logistics functions as well as communication and maintenance functions.
In such an home/building networked intelligently by means of wireless communication technology, text, audio, video and/or control data is generally transmitted for this purpose between the devices and equipment that are part of the smart home scenario inside (communication) or outside (telecommunication) the networked home/building, thereby functioning as the data source and/or data sink.